| XA, a 39 yr old woman, was very ill. She was on
a long spiritual trip to India and had probably eaten food that
was not hygienically prepared at some point. The start of symptoms
was a whole 3 months earlier (Feb '05). From then on she developed
severe abdominal problems of daily pain, diarrhea, flatulence inability
to eat and weight loss. She now was having about 12 - 14 watery
stools a day that were very offensive, yellow and profuse and hot.
Along with this was flatulence, bloating, nausea and a complete
loss of appetite. Everything she ate seems to spark off the diarrhea
attack with a lot of gurgling felt in her chest and abdomen. With
this she was very, very thirsty for luke warm water but despite
drinking water all the time she continued to feel dehydrated and
her mouth remained dry. Diarrhea was worse from fried food, better
while lying down and laying her hands gently on her abdomen relieved
her very much. She felt fatigued and also restless with thoughts
continuously running through her head. She was thermally very hot
as she always is. She had tried Aloes, Sulphur and Acid
Phos in rotation, and quite a few other remedies earlier – nothing
seemed to help.
She had stayed in a hostel, while studying homeopathy in one of
the Indian cities, while also attending an ashram for Spiritual
guidance with a Guruji. But the study had been exhausting though
stimulating and she was looking forward to the next part of her
trip to Rishikesh. She longed to get back to the mountains
there which was always very uplifting; of being one with nature
and with the ‘energy’, surrounded by spiritual people chanting and
singing spiritual songs.
I realised we were working with a chronic abdominal problem (probably
Giardiasis and/or Amoebiasis) that was still in its acute expression.
Since she was traveling, it was not possible to get a complete chronic
history from her. We decided the best thing to do at that point
was to treat the acute episodes with a good acute remedy. Repertorizing
the above symptoms:
Watery X yellow X offensive diarrhea: acon., Agar., aloe,
alum-sil., Ant-c., ant-t., Apis, Apoc., aran., Arg-n., arn., Ars.,
ars-i., Asaf., asar., asc-t., bamb-a., Bapt., bar-m., bor., bov.,
brom., Bry., Calc., Carb-v., Carbn-s., Cham., chin., cocc., Colch.,
coloc., cop., Crot-h., croto-t., dig., dios., Dulc., fl-ac., Gamb.,
Grat., hep., hyos., iod., ip., Iris, Kali-ar., kali-c., Kali-p.,
kali-s., Lach., lept., Lyc., lycps., med., Merc., Merc-c., nat-c.,
Nat-m., nat-p., Nat-s., nit-ac., Nux-m., Nux-v., Olnd., petr., Ph-ac.,
Phos., plb., Podo., Puls., rheum, Rhus-t., ric., sanic., Sec., sep.,
sul-ac., sul-i., Sulph., tab., ter., Thuj., Tub., Verat.
STOOL; HOT (K638, G545) (RECTUM; Pain; burning; diarrhea;
during)
STOMACH; THIRST; unquenchable, constant (K530, G451) (burning,
vehement) (extreme)
Dryness of tongue X thirst with: Acon., aloe, apoc., arg-n.,
arn., Ars., bar-c., Bell., Bry., Camph., canth., carb-an., carbn-s.,
Caust., cench., Cham., chel., Chin., chin-s., coc-c., Cocc., graph.,
kali-bi., kali-br., kali-i., kreos., Lach., laur., lyc., mag-m.,
merc-c., mez., nat-c., Nat-m., nit-ac., Nux-m., op., petr., phos.,
phyt., Rhus-t., sec., stram., Sulph., tab., verat.
GENERALITIES; FOOD and drinks; fats and rich food; agg.
(K1363, SII-240, SII-241, G1124) (heavy food - oil - pork - rich)
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; food; rich, after (K613, G524)
ABDOMEN; RUB, desire to (Pain; general; rubbing amel.)
GENERALITIES; LYING; amel.; back, on (K1372, SII-356, G1131)
The choices that came up were Phos, Bryonia and Puls.
I had to be precise as she had taken so many remedies over the last
couple of months and nothing had helped even a little. I asked her
to tell me exactly what her mental state was. She missed the 'pure'
love she experienced through her Gurugi. This man had found his
path and was so obviously at peace with himself that it seemed to
amplify her own loneliness /lack of spirituality. He had found his
path/way and he was a manifestation of true divine love. Even the
attraction of the Rishikesh, could not make up for this. She missed
the sincere love she experienced. This was her present emotional
state.
The obvious choice for her now was Phosphorous (April '05).
She needed just a few doses of 200C and she felt an immediate relief
that she never experienced before. She was able to continue the
rest of the travel (over the next 3 weeks or so) with hardly any
episodes of diarrhea but needed to be very careful about her diet.
The minute she ate something that did not agree with her, she started
the diarrhea again.
Chronic History and Constitutional Remedy:
There was a break of a month and a half because she was unable
to keep in touch. She took the Phos 30C if necessary and
then she had with a bad viral infection, fever, etc for which she
was given herbal treatment at the nature cure centre. She took more
than a week to recover from this. When she contacted me again she
said:
“I had an emotional meltdown (angry and critical) recently
(early June) and got very upset with the people at the nature cure
centre. After being here so long, I have not felt any great overall
improvement with their treatment. I've been having diarrhea 10-12
times a day, watery stools. They have been reducing in number slowly
but the stools were still watery. Still sensitive to different foods.
Its only in the last couple of days that they have become semisolid.
I'm down to 51 kgs (a loss of 8 kgs) and I have to be careful with
my diet.”
Somehow she managed to give me a complete history partly by email
and partly on the phone. She first gave me a very detailed and critical
description of her physical appearance (mostly negative), which
I thought may be a characteristic symptom. She had a history of
frequent ear infections, chest infections during her childhood and
teenage years with a few episodes of pneumonia and asthma as well.
She was left with a chronic type of sinusitis at present.
Her mother died of bowel cancer while in her mid thirties,
and her father suffered from Polio. One brother was born deaf, a
sister has scoliosis. There is a history of tuberculosis, heart
problems, manic depression and cancer in her immediate family members.
All this cautioned me about strong tubercular and syphilitic diathesis
which had to be reflected in the constitutional remedy choice.
The details of her general complaints were: Hot +++, all
complaints aggravated by heat. Also she had excessive perspiration,
in the groin area, palms and soles. She drank large quantities of
water lukewarm (!) and had a big appetite, but had to eat very frequently
otherwise she would feel very faint from hunger. She has no sexual
desire at all over the last 8 years, and is unmarried at present.
She described herself as a loner, very sensitive and judgmental
with suicidal tendencies. She loved music, listening to mantras
being sung always made her feel so much better spiritually. She
loved to travel because it helped her get out of mundane life. She
hated the routine of work and being stuck to a job, but she could
do nothing about it as she had to earn for her living. She also
disliked studying and working very hard.
Her relationship with her family is good but not close, because
she says she is a closed person and does not share herself. Her
friends say they don’t really know her. She has always had a fear
of being robbed or raped. Her most painful memories were of relationships
breaking up. It would take her a long time to get over a broken
relationship. For the last 10 years she has not been in any relationship.
She feels an inability to forgive deep hurts of her past, which
she would like to change. She also feels very strongly about injustice
and abuse of power in society and it is these situations that can
bring on the depression. She tends to get very critical of people
and their faults just as she is very critical of herself and says
this may be a projection because she does not love herself. So she
does not like talking with others and much prefers keeping to herself.
Emotionally, she has a lot of suppressed anger and grief. She does
not like consolation. The anger is more prominent than the grief
right now. She is very angry about having diarrhea so many months
and no one has been able to cure it. She has tried everything –
all types of therapy in India.
She has never been able to grieve as tears were not accepted in
her childhood home. When her mother died when she was 6 years old,
she was not allowed to be part of this. She was not even told that
her mother was ill, an uncle broke the news of her death. This was
told to her near a river and she remembers her first reaction was
a desire to jump into the river from shock and grief and abandonment.
She was taken to live with relatives and she does not remember asking
for more information again. Once her father married again, she had
a pretty happy childhood as her step mother was a loving person.
On reflection, from her return to her family home at seven, to early
thirties she was mostly very happy, full of life, always in relationships,
popular, full of energy and sociable. It came so easily to her.
Now its the opposite.
Circumstances had forced her to move to the city in a neighbouring
country, but it resulted in her continuing in a lifestyle of drugs
(grass, cannabis, speed, cocaine, Ecstacy and LSD), alcohol, entertainment
and a few relationships while she supported herself financially
in some boring job. She said that she loved the club and dance scene
though. After about 10 years of this lifestyle, she began to get
depressed and it came to a ‘natural’ end. She then had no passion
for anything and did not value her life any more. She began to feel
a total lack of joy within her heart and no interest in life anymore,
which continues to this day. This has resulted in a Spiritual search
for peace and meaning in life that brought her to India. She finds
the mountains of Rishikesh and the spiritual environment
there brings her close to this feeling of peace, and is uplifting.
Analysis:
A few characteristics stood out for me clearly. One was the lack
of joy within her heart, the absolute lack of interest in life.
Secondly, the wild lifestyle (parties, drugs, alcohol) that she
had for over 10 years which she had found entertaining. Combined
with this was the sensitivity to injustice, and a deep, longstanding
grief and anger that was suppressed. Below are the rubrics I chose
for analysis.
FEMALE; PERSPIRATION (groin)(K743, G631)
GENERALITIES; HUNGER agg. (K1367, SII-311, SII-312, G1128)
(Fasting)
FEMALE; SEXUAL; desire; wanting (SIII-609)
MIND; FEAR; robbers, of (K47, SI-520, G37) (knaves)
MIND; CONSOLATION; agg. (K16, SI-181)
MIND; INJUSTICE, cannot support (SI-633)
MIND; TRAVEL; desire to (K89, SI-1030, G71)
MIND; INDIFFERENCE, apathy; joy, to (SI-617)
MIND; LOATHING; life, of (K62, SI-710, G50)
(MIND; SUICIDAL disposition; thoughts (K85, SI-980, G68)
MIND; AILMENTS from; anger, vexation; suppressed, from (K2,
SI-15, G2)
MIND; WILDNESS (K95, SI-1092, G76)
MIND; TALK, talking, talks; others agg., of (K86, SI-991,
G69)
|
Forums
Courses
Shop
Diseases
Articles
Journal
Directory
